Lashley Stops Making Sense

More interesting than Bobby Lashley’s career in the ring is what goes on outside of it: on Friday’s episode of “Inside MMA,” Lashley chuffed at an audience poll result that wanted to see him fight Brett Rogers for his next bout in Strikeforce.

Disagreeing with a poll isn’t such a severe infraction. If the sport were left to match fighters by fan committee, we’d be seeing Tony Jaa fighting polar bears by now. But Lashley’s logic takes a different turn: He prefers to continue a slow “build” of a strategy -- which amounts to fighting lame athletes who have headlined shows with “Xtreme” on the marquee -- or be granted an immediate shot at the Strikeforce heavyweight title. Ascending through the ranks is apparently not worth the risk.

There is value in taking the most threatening fights possible. All fights carry risk. If you have a chance of losing, at least lose to someone respectable, an attitude applied by Forrest Griffin in what’s amounted to a very lucrative career. But Griffin never insisted on getting a shot at the light heavyweight title after wins over Elvis Sinosic and Bill Mahood -- a lesser crime than demanding a shot after wins over Jason Guida and Wes Sims. If Strikeforce indulges Lashley’s request to fight Alistair Overeem without any real labor invested, that title wouldn’t be worth the time it would take to melt it down.